I don't often focus on those who died, it is the life of a person that is testament to their character. But time stretches things, and alters meaning, and it is important to revisit what happened. Some despise the Crusades, pointing to the futile and death and despair, linked to religion. But that final assault of the first Crusade in 1099 led to the foundation of a remarkable jewel, a European nation in the Middle East with knights and castles and peoples speaking French. The dreams of those people being realized fifty years after on the same day with a reconstructed church. But while those people died with their dream intact, the dream did not last as long as two hundred years. It is worth thinking of that while considering a fractured United States in the 1860's and her great leader, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln died, and his dream of a United States was being realized. He left behind children. But one child died on this day in 1871, Tad Lincoln. Tad was only 18 years old. He had not been well educated, as he had had a speech impediment and cleft lip and was reputed to be impulsive and unrestrained. He was known to interrupt meetings in the white house and even charge visitors to see his dad. When his father was assassinated, Tad was taken to see his dying dad, and aftterwards is recorded as having said "Pa is dead. I can hardly believe that I shall never see him again. I must learn to take care of myself now. Yes, Pa is dead, and I am only Tad Lincoln now, little Tad, like other little boys. I am not a president's son now. I won't have many presents anymore. Well, I will try and be a good boy, and will hope to go someday to Pa and brother Willie, in Heaven."

Tad's passing was not the end of the Lincoln line. The last recorded Lincoln was Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith who died in 1985. There is a disputed son of Robert's but it is a mistake to link mere property and progeny as being Lincoln's heritage. It is Liberty. The freedom of anyone to prosper regardless of colour, or creed. And it is not linked solely to the US, but to all lands aligned with her. And so on this day a young man trying to be good went to be with his family. But today, we have the liberty to be with our living ones.

John Ball was executed on this day. He was hung, drawn and quartered. As an itinerant preacher, Ball, inspired by the work of Wycliffe, had preached of egalitarian values during a time of high taxation. The then King Richard II was about fourteen years old and ruling with the aid of advisers who were infighting for political power. Richard II's grandfather had England fighting an expensive war with France. Much credit is given the young king for facing his rebellious subjects. However, John's preaching was inconsistent with what England could accept, he called for an end to serfdom. Serfdom would end in England, but it needed the civil war to end the old world. In some ways, the execution of John was the beginning of the English Civil War known as the War of the Roses. The Rosetta Stone was found on this day, 1799 by French soldiers of Napoleon. It had been made circa 200 BC during the reign of Ptolemy V Epiphanes. It is a decree, the same decree, in three different languages. Two thousand years after it was made, no one knew how to read Egyptian hieroglyphs anymore. However, two of the languages were known, and because it was the same text, it became the key to understanding how Egyptian was written. And so now all the writing in Egypt is available for the world to learn about what life was like back then.

This column welcomes feedback and criticism. The column is not made up but based on the days events and articles which are then placed in the feed. So they may not have an apparent cohesion they would have had were they made up.

===For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball

Mr Ball, I will not sign your petition as it will do no good, but I will share your message and ask as many of friends who read it, to share it also. Let us see if we cannot use the power of the internet to spread the word of these infamous killings. As a father and a former soldier, I cannot, could not, justify ignoring this appalling action by the perpetrators, whoever they may; I thank you Douglas. You are wrong about the petition. Signing it is as worthless and meaningless an act as voting. A stand up guy would know that. - edLorraine Allen Hider I signed the petition ages ago David, with pleasure, nobody knows what it's like until they've been there. Keep heart David take care.

I have begun a bulletin board (http://theconservativevoice.freeforums.net) which will allow greater latitude for members to post and interact. It is not subject to FB policy and so greater range is allowed in posts. Also there are private members rooms in which nothing is censored, except abuse. All welcome, registration is free.

===

Happy birthday and many happy returns Jason J-Fo, Dominic Philibert, Ivan Ly, Michael Ta and Krista Tamba. Born on the same day, across the years. A day on which in 1240, A Novgorodian army led by Alexander Nevsky defeated the Swedes on the Neva River near Ust-Izhora, present-day Russia. 1799, French soldiers uncovered the Rosetta Stone in Fort Julien, near the Egyptian port city of Rashid. 1815, Aboard HMS Bellerophon, Napoleon surrendered to Royal Navy Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland to finally end the Napoleonic Wars. 1959, Five hundred thousand American steelworkers went on strike, closing nearly every steel mill in the country. 1983, Armenian extremist organization ASALA bombed the Turkish Airlines check-in counter at Orly Airport as part of its campaign for the recognition of and reparations for the Armenian Genocide. Who doesn't enjoy the taste of Swedes? Unlocking the code of hidden languages may seem adventurous, but nothing like the rush of accepting Napoleonic surrender. Those metalworkers didn't give up and neither should the Armenians. Cheers for the day.

1979 – U.S.PresidentJimmy Carter gives his so-called malaise speech, where he characterizes the greatest threat to the country as "this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation" but in which he never uses the word malaise.

Tim Blair – Wednesday,July 15,2015 (1:04pm)

My favourite Deep Green Resistance member is the woman who wants a return to conditions during “the first four million years” of human existence, when everybody “participated”.

She’s wearing adult braces, which weren’t exactly a common feature of the pre-civilisation era:

The extreme green movement is nudging ever closer to a form of fascism. There is not much difference between words once deployed in the service of preserving a master race and words now deployed in the service of preserving a master planet.

The third lady to speak, the one with all-natural, not-at-all-technological adult braces, is Ms Lierre Keith, a former radical vegan and now self-described “gender abolitionist” whose strange mental adventures have previously entertained us.

Ms Keith and her associates wish to wage “decisive ecological warfare” against… well, the rest of us, and to “disrupt and dismantle industrial civilisation,” with “complete economic collapse” as the path to salvation. When not signalling their intellectual wattage by calling for the “abolition” of masculinity and “whiteness,” and the “abolition” of the United States, “an illegitimate settler nation,” Deep Green Resistance very much like the idea of “sabotaging infrastructure” and cutting power lines, thereby leaving tens of thousands of people without light and heat.

Such measures would, apparently, encourage “class consciousness.” Elderly people in remote locations would no doubt embrace the finer points of revolutionary eco-socialism as they shivered in the dark and the feeling left their limbs.

- Iran does not have to dismantle its basic nuclear infrastructure.
- Iran needs to wait just 15 years before most of the supervision stops.
- arms embargoes on Iran, a fascist power sponsoring leading terrorist groups, end after just five years.
- the sanctions will gradually lift, and the challenge will be to reimpose them if there’s a breach of the deal by Iran.
- surprise inspections of suspect sites other than the agreement’s
designated site are severely limited, with Iran given the power to delay
them by 24 days.
- breaches of the deal by Iraq are meant to see sanctions “snap back”,
but the UN has 65 days before agreeing to reimpose the ones it voted
for.

Last week we paid some attention to the royal commissioner Dyson
Heydon and his apparent shock at encountering pollie speak. “A lot of
your answers are non-responsive, some are responsive, but then you add
something that isn’t responsive,” he told Bill Shorten ...
But if he was hoping to have some sort of reforming effect, he would have been disappointed yesterday.

JOURNALIST: Do you think that the Shenhua mine should be built?
SHORTEN: Labor will rely upon the best science evidence. Clearly
there’s a lot of concern, legitimate concern out there by agricultural
land users in the Liverpool Plains. I think the Government needs to, you
know, they can’t keep passing the buck and blaming the New South Wales
Government, the Federal Government should stop blaming New South Wales.
You’ve got Mr Hunt and you’ve for the Prime Minister saying, Mr Abbott
saying this is not prime agricultural land; you’ve got Mr Joyce saying
this is prime agricultural land – they both can’t be right. It’s time
for the Government to stop fighting amongst itself and start focusing on
the future jobs of Australians including in agriculture and renewable
energy and all the other important jobs of the future which this
Government just simply isn’t focused on. Thanks everyone.
JOURNALIST: Do you support the proposal or not?
SHORTEN: Well we want to – we want to see the scientific evidence is and
we want to see the Government provide the information to us, but one
thing is for sure, this Government doesn’t know what to do with the
Liverpool Plains and they’re busy blaming each other and I just want
them to get on and focus on the jobs of the future, not just fighting
each other. Thanks everyone, see you later.

Judge Muscat later said a report he had requested from Families SA
showed the department had never even considered removing the toddler
from his mother.
“Families SA’s response (to my request) was about as disappointing as it
(the department) was in dealing with the 19 notifications made to it
concerning the child,” he said.

How does the ABC justify this astonishing deceit?
To illustrate a story on global warming, allegedly caused by man’s
emissions of invisible carbon dioxide and methane, it shows Chinese
factories spewing out all kinds of grit, soot and chemicals that have
nothing at all to do with warming, and resemble nothing found here.
That is simply deceit. That, or astonishing ignorance.
Then, of course, we get alarmist Peter Doherty talking about deaths from
heat without adding that deaths from cold are actually more common,
plus interview with medical students who imagine things might get even
worse.
Scares, false claims, cherry picking and vague imaginings. And this forms the material for another ABC report.
Global warming surely represents the greatest failure of journalism in our lifetime.
(Thanks to reader Brian.)

The Australian Electoral Commission’s latest financial disclosure
returns reveal five ­unions, led by the Electrical Trades Union,
contributed a total of $567,766 to the Greens in 2013-14…
The Greens remain opposed to two previously rejected pieces of
legislation that raise governance standards in trade unions and revive
the Australian Building and Construction Commission, which the
government will test again when parliament ­resumes next month.

The head of the construction union’s ACT branch, Dean Hall, has been
drawn into new allegations that officials barged on to worksites without
proper authorisation, engaged in standover tactics, oversaw workplace
shut-downs and pushed about site managers.

Meeting in Canberra, the trade union royal commission heard further
evidence of business owners paying money to former Construction,
Forestry, Mining and Energy Union organiser Halafihi “Fihi” Kivalu.
Fihi is alleged to have extorted in excess of $150,000 from business
owners who were led to believe the payments were necessary to obtain or
retain work with cash at times being handed over in white unsealed
envelopes.
Chinese gyprock and plastering businessman Jian Yu He (known as
“Jackie") told the hearing he paid $5000 cash in two instalments to
Fihi, a sum he negotiated down from $10,000. On both occasions, he said
he handed over the cash while sitting in Fihi’s car with the then union
official.
“(Fihi) said without paying, it’s possible that I cannot stay in Canberra for work,” Mr He told the commission.

The Labor Party has become more, not less, encumbered by the unions.
This dependence is financial, factional and structural. Union financial
backing is critical for elections…
The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union… recently faced a
$3.55 million payout to Grocon for its sustained, reckless and damaging
blockades of building sites in several states in 2012. The Federal Court
found the union had “outrageous disregard” for industrial law and
norms…
Evidence to the Dyson Heydon-led royal commission this week heard that a
lead CFMEU organiser allegedly extorted more than $150,000 from
construction businesses in Canberra in return for favoured treatment.
The money was often provided in white unsealed envelopes and counsel
assisting, Jeremy Stoljar SC, said coming evidence would reveal “alleged
corrupt payments, stand­over and intimidation tactics”.
The unions and Shorten denounce the commission as a witch-hunt…
The former ALP government abolished the Australian Building and
Construction Commission, a move that unleashed more coercion and
intimidation on sites…
Abbott has used the evidence surrounding the royal commission to argue
for his government’s two bills before the parliament. They are the ABCC
bill and the Registered Organisations bill, another election commitment,
that ensures office holders in registered organisations (unions and
employer bodies) are subject to the same legal sanctions that apply to
corporations… One has already been rejected by the current Senate. The
ABCC bill is before the new Senate for the first time…
Labor’s problem is apparent: its institutional partner, main financial
source and talent pool for MPs is a union movement some of whose biggest
players (think CFMEU) have a business model heavily dependent on
coercion and law-breaking.

How mad is Labor? How crazed with the global warming religion?
Consider.
Labor was destroyed when the Gillard Government imposed a carbon tax.
A carbon tax costs money and jobs but makes no measurable difference to global warming.
Global warming seems to have paused, with no real rise in atmospheric temperature for some 18 years.
The catastrophes predicted by global warming scientists have not
emerged. We have not seen worse or more cyclones, we have not seen falls
in food harvests, we have not seen an increase world wide in droughts.
Most low-lying islands once thought vulnerable to inundation through global warming are in fact stable or growing in size.
Some a few scientists now warn not of global warming but a mini ice age in 15 years.
So a carbon tax is electoral poison and a costly and useless response to a problem that may well not exist anyway.
Yet:

The Opposition Leader faces a ferocious government assault and his
biggest test of political will after the leak of Labor’s plans to
resurrect a version of the carbon pricing scheme which contributed to
its defeat in 2013.
Labor’s leaked plan looks
like a version of an emissions trading scheme linked to other
international schemes which at today’s prices would give us a carbon
price of around $8-$10…
Leaked internal policy documents reportedly show Labor is planning a
carbon pricing scheme with emissions caps that would apply to the
electricity sector and a separate scheme which would apply to the rest
of the economy.
Labor could also take a higher emissions reduction target to the next
election if it considers the post 2020 target that is to be revealed by
the Abbott Government next month too low.

Some Labor frontbenchers know this is madness. But global warming makes
believers so crazed and intolerant that trying to argue against this
within Labor is useless. Besides, see how many journalists won’t hear a
word of criticism of the warming faith either.

A truth of economic reform - it tends not to happen unless the Left grows up and is given the consolation of power. Or as Terry McCrann puts it:

IN A critical aspect what’s happening with Greece is a telling replay of what happened in Australia through the mid-1980s.

Simply, that the best way to get the tough decisions taken is to have
them framed from the Left in government and supported by the Right in
opposition. When they instead come from a government of the Right they
tend to run into aggressive and even visceral opposition from the Left.
It tends to be a two-stage process, starting with the Left first getting mugged by reality.

Bob Katter is a member of the Australian Parliament. He also is an embarrassment to it.
Here he is tonight attacking the Government for allegedly antagonising Indonesia by asking for mercy for two Australian drug traffickers:

...it’s again and again and again they seem to be wanting to pick a fight and have an antagonism with Indonesia.
Well, maybe, maybe they would have a different viewpoint if, when they
were 18, handed a rifle and had to give two telephone numbers because we
were at war with Indonesia - and that was my situation - maybe they’d
have a different attitude if they came from north Queensland where, in
the last war, we were handed over to the Japanese under the Brisbane
line. Maybe they’d have a different attitude.

Further to last post what do you make of the Daily Telegraph's front page today? Surely whomever in the Shadow cabinet leaked this wanted this sort of coverage?
Posted by Latika M Bourke on Tuesday, 14 July 2015

Tim Blair – Tuesday,July 15,2014 (5:28am)

According to Fairfax, there is a direct link between reduced government funding for awards nights and Aboriginal suicide:

The Aboriginal founder of the Deadly Awards, the annual celebration of indigenous achievement, was shattered last month when he learnt that he would lose federal funding worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Gavin Jones, 47, was found dead on his farm at Goulburn on Saturday. While his family did not want to discuss the nature of his death, they and his friends were aware of his devastation at the loss of funding affecting his ventures, which had spawned radio and television productions, the national Deadly Vibe magazine, the annual Deadly Awards, sport, dance and hip-hop events, and much more.

Jones’s death is tragic, but connecting it to budget decisions about prizes is obscene.

TONY Abbott and Bill Shorten have set battlelines for another election campaign on carbon pricing, with Labor vowing to fight for “a serious, credible climate change policy’’ and the Prime Minister warning that the carbon tax will return under Labor.The carbon tax repeal bills passed the House of Representatives with Clive Palmer’s support last night and are set to pass the Senate this week, leaving Labor and the Greens as the only opposition to axing the carbon tax. The Opposition Leader said Labor supported a “flexible and viable’’ emissions trading scheme…

If Labor now now questions the savings, why did it make the very same claims a year ago?

Mr Abbott’s claim of a $550 gain from total abolition of the carbon tax is based on Treasury modelling used by Labor in government to support its carbon tax scheme. Kevin Rudd cited the same modelling to promise axing the carbon tax and moving to an ETS would see families $380 better off as the carbon price fell from $25.40 to $6.

UPDATE
Let’s fact check just some of the many claims made yesterday by Opposition Leader Bill Shorten:Claim: “We were right to listen to the scientific world.”
In fact: Labor is not listening at all to the scientists who say the world’s temperature has stayed flat for some 16 years. Even the IPCC now implicitly concedes its models may have overestimated climate sensitivity. This means our gases may not be warming the planet as much as many once believed.Claim: “We are not skeptics.”
In fact, that is not a virtue. Absolute, unquestioning belief belongs to religion, not science.Claim: “Only one party in Australia has a serious, substantial and credible climate change policy – the Australian Labor party.”
In fact, Labor’s policy is not serious, substantial of credible. It commits to making Australians spend many billions of dollars a year to make no practical difference to the climate. Even the most generous assessment of the effect of Lanbor’s policy, by IPCC scientist Professor Roger Jones, admit that at best Labor’s policy would at best cut the world’s expected temperature in 2100 by just 0.0038 degrees. And if, as now seems clear, the planet is even less sensitive to our emissions, the difference would be even less.Claim: “There is no doubt our earth is warming and our seas rising – or that humankind is the cause.”
In fact, the planet has not warmed for around 16 years. Even the IPCC says humankind is not “the” cause of the warming last century but just one of the causes, and admits there is some doubt it is the biggest cause.Claim: “Each of the last three decades has been warmer on average than any other in modern times and 13 of the 14 hottest years on record have occurred in the 21st Century.”
In fact, Shorten is largely correct, but deliberately omits the most important fact about those temperatures - that there has been no further warming over the past 16 years or so, despite a vast increase in emissions. This is contrary to global warming theory and predictions:

Claim: “Sea levels have risen by about 20cm on average over the past century – and the rate of increase has been much greater in recent decades. There is no evidence to refute any of this ...”
In fact, Shorten is exaggerating the acceleration and the certainty. As the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says, “records and research show that sea level has been steadily rising at a rate of 0.04 to 0.1 inches per year since 1900. This rate may be increasing. Since 1992, new methods of satellite altimetry (the measurement of elevation or altitude) indicate a rate of rise of 0.12 inches per year.” Moreover, a recent study concludes the rate of rise has actually dropped, from a rise of 3.4 mm per year during the 1990s, to 2.4 mm per year from 2003-2011, or a slowdown of about 30 per cent.Claim: “And if we do not act, the consequences will be severe.”
In fact, the consequences will be virtually identical whether we act or not. Labor’s policies will make no identifiable difference to our climate.Claim: “It is predicted we will endure more droughts, more bushfires and more floods, more storms – more extremes.”
In fact, “it is predicted” are weasel words. Anything can be predicted and has been. But the latest IPCC report denies much of what Shorten claims. It said it had “not enough evidence” to have anything more than “low confidence” there had been more droughts, “low confidence” there had been more hail or thunderstorms, “low confidence” there had been more floods and “low confidence for a clear trend in storminess”. In fact, “evidence suggests slight decreases in the frequency of tropical cyclones making landfall in the North Atlantic and the South Pacific”. Shorten is just scare-mongering, and ignoring the science.Claim: “Indeed we are already seeing more extreme weather events, influenced by the warming experienced thus far.”
In fact, that is bull, unsupported by evidence. See above.Claim: “Since we put a price on pollution two years ago, emissions in the energy sector – the main industry covered by the carbon tax – have dropped by 10.4 per cent”
In fact, this is cause largely by the relative collapse of manufacturing in Australia.Claim: “[Renewable energy agency] ARENA grants are also supporting Australian researchers investigating new and more efficient energy sources: Tidal Energy in Portland… Geothermal energy in the Cooper Basin.”
In fact, wave generators subsidised by ARENA have sunk. The geothermal project in the Cooper Basin subsidised by Labor has flopped.

Why did we import this danger and vilify those who tried to warn against it?

A SENIOR member of parliament’s high-powered intelligence and security committee has warned a Bali-style terrorist attack is inevitable on ­Australian soil and the risk of an incident is “accelerating"… Labor MP Anthony Byrne raised the alarm in parliament yesterday, revealing the view of the intelligence community was that an attack on home soil of the magnitude of the 2002 Bali bombing — which claimed the lives of 202 people including 88 Australians — was not only possible but now probable… The Daily Telegraph revealed last month Mr Brandis was planning to adopt up to 41 of 43 recommendations from a bipartisan report last year of the JPCIS that called for greater surveillance powers for ASIO… Spy chiefs are concerned the government is moving too slowly at a time when there were heightened warnings about domestic terrorist events and links to Australians fighting with jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

The idea that Clive Palmer and his PUPs would be a positive force for good policy has taken a beating. The other senators are worth talking to and negotiating with but I have grave doubts about the government dealing with Palmer. He constantly contradicts himself, revels in creating uncertainty and lives for personal aggrandisement and opposition to the Coalition.

Who could trust a word this man says?:

No-one ... should forget that only as recently as November, Palmer said “he would be abstaining from voting in the House of Representatives on the carbon tax repeal legislation to avoid a potential conflict of interest”. He then said, “I’m applying company standards and stepping out of this debate as there’s currently a potential conflict of interest"… Sunday’s press reported Palmer’s office saying that although the amendments agreed over the weekend looked fine “it would be up to Mr Palmer to approve them”. Mr Palmer owes an explanation to the Parliament and to the people… But he is not just breaching basic standards. Last week Palmer concocted a series of nonsense excuses for opposing the repeal of the carbon tax. And when Palmer refused to answer questions about his integrity, attacked fiscal reform and promoted new red tape it seemed obvious it’s unlikely he can be trusted on anything.

As you see, this protest featured the yellow flag of the Hezbollah terrorist group, the black flag of the Taliban and jihadism, signs likening Israel to Nazi Germany and signs claiming the Jews are actually descended from the Turkic Khazar empire, and therefore have no historic connection with the land of Israel.
Mass immigration has brought with it a virulent anti-semitism and a minority that shows a dangerous allegiance to groups which preach and practice extreme violence.
UPDATE
This racism, in our midst, is not remarked upon by the ABC.
The racism of Hamas, the rulers of Gaza, is also not remarked upon by the ABC, although it’s screamed out in not just its deeds but its charter, in black and white:

For our struggle against the Jews is extremely wide-ranging and grave… The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said:

“The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: 0 Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him! This will not apply to the Gharqad, which is a Jewish tree.” (cited by al-Bukhari and Muslim)…

When Islam will retake possession of [the means to] guide the life [of the Muslims], it will wipe out those organizations which are the enemy of humanity and Islam…With their money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others… They were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there. With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests…...they were behind World War I, when they were able to destroy the Islamic Caliphate… They were behind World War II… It was they who instigated the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council to enable them to rule the world through them. There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in it… The Zionist invasion is a vicious invasion… It is behind the drug trade and alcoholism… There is no way out except pooling together all the forces and energies to face this despicable Nazi-Tatar invasion.

SARAH FERGUSON: At the same time though, a number of leading Israeli writers, including Chemi Shalev, said it wasn’t a response to the killing of the young settlers, for example, but something bigger in Israel, an unchecked racism. Does Netanyahu at the same time take responsibility for allowing that racism to continue unchecked?

And it apparently assumes the poverty and militancy of Arab extremists is due simply to “inequality” - and one due not to Muslim Arab culture, moreover, but Jewish oppression:

SARAH FERGUSON: It’s not just writers talking about this. The former head of your own internal security service, the Shin Bet, Yuval Diskin, issued a scathing attack on your government just a couple of days ago for failing to deal with these issues, for failing to deal with Arab inequality in Israel, for allowing more settlement building. He knows what’s going on inside your country, doesn’t he? MARK REGEV: He’s of course entitled to his opinion and he’s got a very clear political position in opposition to my Prime Minister and that’s his right in our democracy… Our Declaration of Independence promises equality for all our citizens and we are determined to get there, to make sure that all Israelis have an equal chance…

SARAH FERGUSON: The reality on the ground is obviously not that and this is what Yuval Diskin is saying, that the - whatever is the result of this bombing campaign - and we’ll come to it in just a second - that the enormous pressures in the West Bank and inside Israel will remain whatever happens as a result…

Then comes a barrage of questions implying that Israel is the aggressor, careless with Palestinian lives and needing to negotiate with a terrorist group whose charter in fact insists the only solution is the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews:

SARAH FERGUSON: Let’s just talk about the rocket attacks. Why would Israeli bomb a home for the disabled in Gaza?… There was a rocket attack on the home of the Gaza police chief. He has known sympathies to Hamas. At the same time, a number of children were killed in that attack. Do you take enough care to avoid those casualties, ‘cause it appears the answer is no?… You’re now talking about a potential ground offensive. The question I think that everybody is asking outside Israel and outside Gaza, Mark Regev, on behalf of your government is: where does this end?… You’re going to have to sit down with Hamas in order to secure that solution. Do you accept that?

UPDATE
More of the same from the ABC, which puts Israel under a scrutiny that Hamas terrorists are excused:

ISRAEL launched the operation Protective Edge on Tuesday and its army said it had hit more than 300 targets overnight, raising the total number of strikes so far to 750. Hamas has launched its own rockets across Israel, which have triggered sirens in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa, but there have been no Israeli deaths so far.

PALESTINIAN terrorists in Gaza have fired 96 rockets at Israel today, and 442 in the past three days.

UPDATE
Reader Gaucho:

The big difference between Israel and Hamas is, Israel uses its missiles to protect its people Hamas uses its people to protect its missiles.

UPDATE
The Jews of Australia - and anyone who prizes civilisation - should know the Greens are their enemy. From the speech to the anti-Israel rally by Greens MP Lee Rhiannon, ignoring the jihadist flags flying in front of her:

The root causes of the conflict are the decades-long illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.... Israel is targeting the civilians of Gaza in these bombings and that is why it’s shameful and they are the war crime we condemn ... I don’t want to see rockets going into Israel but what we know is that this is a war of an oppressor Israel, against the oppressed the Palestinians. This is not a war of equal players and that is why we are united here in condemning Israel’s actions.

Bloody scary, this apologia for a terrorist group’s tactics.
(Thanks to readers Daniel and CA.)

“Refugee” activists claim to be more moral. Then why all these false claims and exaggerations? Do moral people feel they don’t need to tell the truth - or say sorry?Nick Cater:

By world standards Sri Lanka is not a particularly oppressive place… Nevertheless, the myth refuses to die. The return of the refugees was like sending Jews back to Nazi Germany, Malcolm Fraser unhelpfully suggested… Operation Sovereign Borders? More like “Operation Slaughter”, says ABC presenter Waleed Aly who writes: “By sending asylum-seekers into the arms of the Sri Lankan navy we’re returning them to their torturers.”Yet even Aly admits — in the last paragraph when he thinks we’ve stopped reading — that “it’s entirely possible these people are economic migrant (sic) and not refugees"…Compassion is not an ideology; it’s a form of piety, an expression of an uncommon moral sensitivity that separates the righteous from the herd… Compassion requires victims, vulnerable people worthy of our benevolence, or at least our benevolent thoughts…Hence the eagerness of the intelligentsia to believe that a “suicide wave” was sweeping Christmas Island, despite authoritative accounts to the contrary…It began on Tuesday with a press release from Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Coalition claiming: “Up to 10 mothers in the family camp have attempted suicide in the last two days on Christmas Island.”That evening, [president Gillian] Triggs put the authority of the Human Rights Commission behind the story, telling ABC viewers: “We’ve had reports that have been confirmed during the day that 10 women have attempted suicide.”On Wednesday, The Age couldn’t resist beating up the story further: “A wave of attempted suicides has swept Christmas Island as 12 mothers tried to kill themselves in the belief their then-orphaned children would have to be settled in Australia.” From then the story started to collapse… There had been only one suicide attempt from a woman who had survived, and she wasn’t a mother.

The Sydney Morning Herald blames Tony Abbott and his government for the death of an Aboriginal activist:

The Aboriginal founder of the Deadly Awards, the annual celebration of indigenous achievement, was shattered last month when he learnt that he would lose federal funding worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Gavin Jones, 47, was found dead on his farm at Goulburn on Saturday. While his family did not want to discuss the nature of his death, they and his friends were aware of his devastation at the loss of funding affecting his ventures, which had spawned radio and television productions, the national Deadly Vibe magazine, the annual Deadly Awards, sport, dance and hip-hop events, and much more… Vibe Australia said it had been informed in June that funds for the Vibe Project would be redirected to federal government programs that deliver “frontline” services from July 1.

Jones’ death is tragic. Blaming his death on losing government grants is despicable.
UPDATE
So proud of the smear that they highlight it on the home page:

Another important lesson, this time from Roman law, is that marriage is a private matter (it’s part of private law, not public law, in civilian countries). The state simply provides a legal framework, particularly in the event of divorce or intestacy. It is difficult to resist the argument that defining the gender of people getting married is intrusive as well as silly and petty.

If marriage is a private matter then why ask the state or church to bless it? Just choose your partner and, if you must, draw up a legal document to formalise it. Indeed, gays can already register relationships. But why then demand the rest of us acknowledge your partnership as a marriage?
Truth is that marriage - the institution, tradition and ceremony - are indeed all public matters. Marriage is a social, not private, construct to bind men to women for the sake of their children, so that the next generations are properly socialised to the benefit of all.
Then there is this problem with Leyonhjelm’s argument: if your choice of partner is entirely a private matter, and state intrusion on that choice silly and petty, then why have any state definition of marriage at all?
Why not allow polygamy and incestuous marriage as well? Isn’t that the true libertarian position?

The easy way to pray!!!!

Everyone is busy and they never find time for prayer, but they do have time to talk to themselves when doing daily tasks, and driving themselves bananas, as they can't find answers.. How about flicking that conversation with yourself and talk to Jesus instead... You can talk to him when your driving, its hands free and safe, whilst your hanging out the washing, in a meeting and the list goes on.... He is always there for a 1 on 1 and its honestly better than talking to yourself, that drives anyone insane!!!! so go on give it a go, flick it around and talk to Jesus... He is the best listener, adviser, healer, guide and so much more... That's the way I roll..

==="Kindness is my number one attribute in a human being," says Dahl. "I'll put it before any of the things like courage or bravery or generosity of anything else. If you're kind, that's it."===

Morning

God's altar was to be built of unhewn stones, that no trace of human skill or labour might be seen upon it. Human wisdom delights to trim and arrange the doctrines of the cross into a system more artificial and more congenial with the depraved tastes of fallen nature; instead, however, of improving the gospel carnal wisdom pollutes it, until it becomes another gospel, and not the truth of God at all. All alterations and amendments of the Lord's own Word are defilements and pollutions. The proud heart of man is very anxious to have a hand in the justification of the soul before God; preparations for Christ are dreamed of, humblings and repentings are trusted in, good works are cried up, natural ability is much vaunted, and by all means the attempt is made to lift up human tools upon the divine altar. It were well if sinners would remember that so far from perfecting the Saviour's work, their carnal confidences only pollute and dishonour it. The Lord alone must be exalted in the work of atonement, and not a single mark of man's chisel or hammer will be endured. There is an inherent blasphemy in seeking to add to what Christ Jesus in His dying moments declared to be finished, or to improve that in which the Lord Jehovah finds perfect satisfaction. Trembling sinner, away with thy tools, and fall upon thy knees in humble supplication; and accept the Lord Jesus to be the altar of thine atonement, and rest in him alone.

Many professors may take warning from this morning's text as to the doctrines which they believe. There is among Christians far too much inclination to square and reconcile the truths of revelation; this is a form of irreverence and unbelief, let us strive against it, and receive truth as we find it; rejoicing that the doctrines of the Word are unhewn stones, and so are all the more fit to build an altar for the Lord.

Evening

"As it began to dawn, came Magdalene, to see the sepulchre."Matthew 28:1

Let us learn from Mary Magdalene how to obtain fellowship with the Lord Jesus. Notice how she sought. She sought the Saviour very early in the morning. If thou canst wait for Christ, and be patient in the hope of having fellowship with him at some distant season, thou wilt never have fellowship at all; for the heart that is fitted for communion is a hungering and a thirsting heart. She sought him also with very great boldness. Other disciples fled from the sepulchre, for they trembled and were amazed; but Mary, it is said, "stood" at the sepulchre. If you would have Christ with you, seek him boldly. Let nothing hold you back. Defy the world. Press on where others flee. She sought Christ faithfully--she stood at the sepulchre. Some find it hard to stand by a living Saviour, but she stood by a dead one. Let us seek Christ after this mode, cleaving to the very least thing that has to do with him, remaining faithful though all others should forsake him. Note further, she sought Jesus earnestly--she stood "weeping". Those tear-droppings were as spells that led the Saviour captive, and made him come forth and show himself to her. If you desire Jesus' presence, weep after it! If you cannot be happy unless he come and say to you, "Thou art my beloved," you will soon hear his voice. Lastly, she sought the Saviour only. What cared she for angels, she turned herself back from them; her search was only for her Lord. If Christ be your one and only love, if your heart has cast out all rivals, you will not long lack the comfort of his presence. Mary Magdalene sought thus because she loved much. Let us arouse ourselves to the same intensity of affection; let our heart, like Mary's, be full of Christ, and our love, like hers, will be satisfied with nothing short of himself. O Lord, reveal thyself to us this evening!

Today's Old Testament reading: Psalm 10-12

1 Why, LORD, do you stand far off?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak,
who are caught in the schemes he devises.3 He boasts about the cravings of his heart;
he blesses the greedy and reviles the LORD.4 In his pride the wicked man does not seek him;
in all his thoughts there is no room for God.5 His ways are always prosperous;
your laws are rejected by him;
he sneers at all his enemies.6 He says to himself, "Nothing will ever shake me."
He swears, "No one will ever do me harm."

1. The son of Lamech of the posterity of Seth - the tenth from Adam. He died at the age of 950 years (Gen. 5:29, 30, 32; 6:8). The LXX version says that the name is a play on the statement, "This same shall give us rest."

The Man Who Built the Ark

Nothing is known of the early life of Noah, who first appeared on the scene when he was five hundred years old. Evidently his father, Lamech, was a religious man and gave his son a fitting name, meaning rest . This much we do know about Noah, he lived in a time when men were universally corrupt, so much so that God said He would destroy the human race (Gen. 6:1-7).

In the midst of an age of moral darkness, Noah was perfect in his generation. He walked with God and had a life radiant with righteousness. Intimate with God, he learned of His purpose to destroy mankind (Heb. 11:7), and was given the strange and almost impossible task of building a vessel large enough to shelter his family and a pair of all the birds and the beasts of that time.

Noah set about the tremendous work of the Ark's construction. Daily he had to endure the ridicule of the godless. At last the waters of judgment covered the earth, but all within the Ark were safe and saved. What a striking illustration the Ark affords of Christ, who preserves us from the flood of divine judgment. Here is an outline for the pastor to extend:

I. Noah walked with God in spite of surrounding iniquity (Gen. 6:8-12). There were saints in Caesar's household.

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About Me

I'm author of History in a Year by the Conservative Voice aka History of the World in a Year by the Conservative Voice.

I'm the Conservative Voice.

I'm looking to make contact with those who might use my skill.

I have an m-audio mobile pre amp fed by the audiotechnica 2041sp condensor mic pack. Prior to 15/4/06, I'd used a Shure sm-58 that required a nuclear blast to register a sound or the internal mic of my aged imac, which has a penchance to recording my breathing. I also used a Griffin itrip, until the community convinced me it was not hiding my talent as well as the other mics.

I am a Writer and an occasional Math Teacher (Sir, what's the occasion?). I like to sing, having no instrumental talent (cannot even clap in time, and yes, I'm aware singing badly IS obnoxious).

I have performed the finale to Les Miserables before an audience of 500. I have also sung before a similar audience (students, parents) renditions of 'I Will' (Beatles), 'Mr Cairo' (Jon Vangelis) and 'I am Australian' (Seekers). Now I seek another profession because the audience hates me ..